This is a new feature at The Recorder Online. I have been selecting which articles to share with you, but since all are so relevant I will start republishing the entire list of I receive them each day. These are compilation of articles and issues that may not be be addressed in the Main Stream Media (MSM) but are of vital importance in preserving journalistic freedom and democracy. While you may not agree with all of the writers, you will find them interesting and thought provoking.

Under AUMF, the executive branch has total discretion as to who it detains and how it treats detainees. Moreover, as the executive branch has total discretion, no one can find out what the executive branch is doing, who detainees are, or what is being done to them. Codification brings accountability, and the executive branch does not want accountability.

Using Bin Laden as a pretext, America invaded Afghanistan in 2002, and nearly a decade later, it is still there, though its bogeyman is long gone. America never runs out of enemies, however, for it can always generate them anew, with either its bombs and guns, or through its jingoistic media. Along with Iran and Syria, Pakistan, supposedly an ally, has become a target.

No surprise the LAPD was spying on LA Occupiers, but they were also probably being provocateurs, says TCBH! journalist Dave LIndorff, who has experienced LAPD spying. And it’s probably going on in other cities, too.

I spent a week with both “Stop the Machine” and Occupy D.C. in McPherson Park in Washington. I had a chance to get to know these people and I have listened to their stories, stories of unemployment. A 26 year old man named Kevin who lost his job and his home after his IT job was outsourced to India. I listened to a mother who lost her son in Afghanistan

For the first time in our history, if this Act is not vetoed, American citizens may not be guaranteed their Article III right to trial. Senator Lindsey Graham declared that suspected citizens open themselves up “to imprisonment and death. …And when they say, ‘I want my lawyer,’ you tell them: ‘Shut up. You don’t get a lawyer.'”

The legend of Pearl Harbor, re-used on 9-11, is responsible not for the destructive pro-war policies of the 1920s and the 1930s that brought World War II into being, but responsible for the permanent war mentality of the past 70 years, as well as for how World War II was escalated, prolonged, and completed.

Two blows to my mental supports made me appreciate a new book that declares all leaders must follow the same rules because they share the same bottom line: getting, then staying empowered. Lessons for all, including Bush and Obama — who needs to pick up his game or go bye bye.

WikiLeaks has just released the Spy Files — a trove of almost 300 documents from these surveillance companies that shine a light into this industry. “What we are seeing is the militarisation of cyberspace. It’s like having a tank in your front garden,” says Julian Assange.

Police arrested 31 people on Sunday night and tore down a barnlike building Occupy D.C. protesters began to erect that morning in a park two blocks from the White House where they have been camping out.

As a signatory to the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has an internationally recognized right to develop and use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Israel, a country with 200-300 nuclear weapons, is threatening to attack Iran, and is one of only three countries that still refuse to sign the NPT.

a report on the first major action of Occupy Philly since the encampment was shut down and blockaded. There was a real question of whether people would show up. This gave an answer, bigtime. Videos included.

By Mary ShawTroy Davis’s Sister Succumbs to Cancer
On December 1, Martina Davis Correia lost her long battle with breast cancer. Correia was the sister of Troy Davis, who was executed by the state of Georgia on September 21 amidst worldwide protest.

The outcome of the November 26 elections was extremely gratifying for the New Zealand Green Party. We received an unprecedented 10.6% of the party vote, which will translate into 13 MPs in the new Parliament. We also passed a referendum to preserve MMP (New Zealand’s system of proportional representation).

Warren is anathema for many finance-sector lobbyists and Wall Street leaders who abhor the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — a centerpiece of the financial services overhaul — of which Warren was the intellectual architect.

Newton Leroy Gingrich: the name sounds like it was invented by Charles Dickens. Too bad he has a political persona that is just as Victorian.

Latest Articles

Callous and Cruel to the Vulnerable and the Poor
George Osborne, the British Chancellor’s autumn statement may be many things, but fair and just it is not. Some of the poorest members of our society, public workers, who do valuable work that distinguishes a caring society from one that is not, are to carry a heavy load for dire economic conditions not of their making.

Israeli-Style Justice
Accused Israelis face charges in civil courts. Military tribunals try Palestinians. Virtually everyone is guilty by accusation. A new study says so. More on that below.

A tribute to Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, written in 2004, on the 35th anniversary of his death.

Happy Raccoon Rescues
It is always good to come away from the computer with a smile on your face. There is usually so much bad news coming our way that a smile is becoming relatively rare. But I think if you care about animals generally, you will like the accounts here of these very caring people in their raccoon rescues. Each is unique and fascinating in its own way.

When the Center for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced that one in ten Americans now takes an antidepressant–a 400% increase since 1988–there was a predictable media hand-wringing about “pill popping” and a rush to “quick fixes.” What I always wonder when I hear these complaints is this: Have these people ever experienced depression themselves, or known someone who suffers from it?

Whoever finally gets the Republican nomination will be a deeply flawed candidate. And these flaws won’t be an accident, the result of bad luck regarding who chose to make a run this time around; the fact that the party is committed to demonstrably false beliefs means that only fakers or the befuddled can get through the selection process.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel points to increasing efforts to restrict freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. Among other issues, the State of Human Rights Report 2011 cites various means employed to silence participants in the social protest movement that began in the summer and claims that democratic debate in the country has been increasingly restricted in the face of the protest.

Newt Gingrich’s mind is in love with itself. His mind is a jumble, an amateurish mess lacking impulse control. He plays air guitar with ideas, producing air ideas. He ejaculates concepts, notions and theories that are as inconsistent as his behavior.

SEC. PANETTA: Just get to the damn table. Just get to the table. The problem right now is we can’t get them to the damn table to at least sit down and begin to discuss their differences. But if they aren’t there—if they aren’t at the table, this will never happen. So first and foremost, get to the damn table.

There is talk of the “Republican establishment” swooping in to save matters, and things certainly seem ripe for a draft write-in campaign for some new candidate. But the Republican establishment, such as it is, is essentially powerless. It sold its soul to the Tea Party, sat by silently as extremist rhetoric engulfed the GOP and figured that swing voters would eventually overlook all this to cast votes against a bad economy.

Gifts That Say You Care, by Kristof, NYTimes
“For starters, the Web sites of the major humanitarian organizations offer alluring holiday gifts. Through the International Rescue Committee, $30 buys a flock of chickens for a needy family. At CARE, $29 gets a girl a school uniform. Through Heifer International, you can stock a fish pond for $300. With Mercy Corps, $69 can start a female entrepreneur in the sewing business.” –Mr. Kristof has many links to respected organizations worldwide. Help somebody who’s worse off than you this year.

Your contribution, sent directly to a reservation organization–even if only a single pair of socks for a child who has none–makes a huge impact when combined with many others. The reservation organizations’ needs are many and change constantly so your donations can take many forms, from school, sewing, crafts, sporting, baby, and office supplies, to toiletries, clothing, Christmas gifts, holiday items, bed, bath and kitchen linens, cold weather gear, crayons and more.

Through its Law Enforcement Education Program (LEEP), JINSA claims to have arranged Israeli-led training sessions for over 9000 American law enforcement officials at the federal, state and municipal level. “The Israelis changed the way we do business regarding homeland security in New Jersey,” Richard Fuentes, the NJ State Police Superintendent, said after attending a 2004 JINSA-sponsored Israel trip and a subsequent JINSA conference alongside 435 other law enforcement officers.

The Obama administration has affirmed, continued and expanded almost all of the draconian domestic civil liberties intrusions pioneered under the Bush administration. Here are 20 examples of serious assaults on freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, the right to privacy, the right to a fair trial, freedom of religion, and freedom of conscience that have occurred since the Obama administration has assumed power.

WIKILEAKS is the target of an “unprecedented” US government criminal investigation, Australian diplomatic cables obtained by the Herald reveal. The cables, released under freedom of information to the Herald this week, show Australian diplomats have been talking to the US Justice Department for more than a year about US criminal investigations of WikiLeaks and Mr Assange.

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said the country’s army downed an unmanned U.S. spy drone along the country’s eastern border Sunday. The wreckage of what Fars described as a Lockheed-Martin RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone was largely intact after it was downed, the news agency said.

U.S. Park Police began arresting members of the Occupy D.C. demonstration just before noon Sunday after police and protesters clashed over a wood building the group began constructing at McPherson Square.